TREASON. This word imports a betray ing, treachery, or breach of allegiance. "4 Bla. Com. 75. In England, treason was vided Into high and petit treason. The lat ter, originally, was of several forms, which, by 25 Edw. III. st. 5, c. 2, were reduced to three : the killing by a wife, of her husband; by a servant, of his master ; of a prelate by an ecclesiastic owing obedience to him. These kinds of treason were abolished in 1828. In America they were unknown; here treason means high treason.
"Treason it has been said is not felony but a grade of crime by itself." Johnson v. State, 29 N. J. L. 453, 464.
The constitution of the United States, art. 3, s. 3, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. By the same article of the constitution, no person shall be con victed of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession In open court.
It is "the only crime defined by the con stitution. . . . The clause was borrowed from an ancient English statute, enacted in the year 1352. Previous to the passage of that statute there was great uncertainty as to what constituted treason. Numerous of fences were raised to its grade by arbitrary construction of the law. The statute was passed to remove this uncertainty and to re strain the power of the crown to oppress the subject by constructions of this character. It comprehends all treason under seven dis tinct branches. The framers of our consti tution selected one of these branches, and declared that treason against the United States should be restricted to the acts which it designates." No other acts can be de clared to constitute the offence. Congress can neither extend, nor restrict, nor define the crime. Its power over the subject is lim ited to prescribing the punishment: Field, J., in U. S. v. Greathouse, 4 Sawy. 465, Fed. Cas. No. 15,254. See James C. Carter, The Law, etc., 107.
By the same article of the constitution, no "attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood except during the life of the person attainted." Every person owing allegiance to the United States who levies war again& them, or adheres to their enemies giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason; R.
S. § 5331. The penalty is death, or at the discretion of the court, imprisonment at hard labor for not less than five years and a fine of not less than ten thousand dollars; and every person convicted of treason is ren dered Incapable of holding any office under the United States ; R. S. § 5332.
The term enemies, as used in the constitu tion, applies only to subjects of a foreign power in a state of. open hostility with. us. To constitute a "levying of war" there must be an assemblage of persons with force and arms to overthrow the government • or resist the laws. All who aid in the furtherance of the common object of levying war against the United States, in however minute a de gree, or however remote from the scene of action, are guilty of treason; U. S. v. Gieat house, 4 Sawy. 457, Fed. Cas. No. 15,254.
Treason may be committed against a state; Charge to Grand Jury—Treason, 1 Sto. 614, Fed. Cas. No. 18,275; People v'. Lynch, 11 Johns. (N. Y.) 549.
The words "treason, felony and of the peace" in section 6, art. 1, of the United States constitution should tie construed in the same sense as they were commonly used and understood in England as applied to the parliamentary privilege, and as excluding from the privilege all arrests and prosecu tions for criminal offences, and confining the privilege alone to arrests in civil cases; Wil liamson v. U. S., 207 U. S. 425, 28 Sup. Ct. 163, 52 L. Ed. 278.
Treason felony in England is a statutory offense punishable with penal servitude for life under an act of 1848, and relates to the offense of deposing the king from the style, honor or royal name of the imperial crown, or declaring war against him to compel him to change his measures or councils, or to, put any force upon parliament, etc. By the Act of 1814, treason was punished by mutilation after death; by the act of 1870, by hanging, unless the king substitutes decapitation. 4 Steph. Com. 144.
Treason, or its French equivalent, "Tra Jason," (German, Kriegsverrath), as employ ed to indicate any acts on the part of the in habitants of an invaded territory which are calculated to deceive the invader or to in form their own side of his forces or move ments. Holland, War on Land 49.
See SEDITION.